


Betrayed By Home, Far Away

by slightlyjillian



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Multi, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-27
Updated: 2010-01-27
Packaged: 2017-10-06 17:48:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/56243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slightlyjillian/pseuds/slightlyjillian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU... a re-invention of events happening in the episode of the same title. This has Vampires, folks. I wrote vampires. Except they call themselves OZ. And humanity has a very different sort of danger to be fighting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Betrayed By Home, Far Away

**Author's Note:**

> Frankly, I find vampires boring, but when challenged to write vampires _I might actually enjoy_? I guess you can see where this is going. Did I fail? Did I succeed? Dunno, but it was a lark.

Nichol used his teeth to hold together the torn flesh of his arm. The skin would knit together more quickly when in closer proximity, and, while he had a calm moment, he considered how it felt to have fangs in his body. The lights of the hallway flickered giving him brief glimpses of metal and bolts. The floor was cold. Lady Une and her personal guard would be along soon enough as they had to have detected his success at lowering the underground fortress's defenses.

He pulled back from his injured limb and the next flash of light revealed the wound had healed with barely a purple strip of bruise, which would disappear. He sniffed the air and wondered that he could smell nothing warm in the tunnels, even though their sources verified the location housed one of the Five.

Being taken into OZ meant his body repaired itself more quickly, his senses were heightened beyond human levels, he physically no longer required food and except for the fundamental craving for blood, belonging to OZ did little to change his life. But the one benefit of OZ that was irrefutably untrue, OZ did not provide immortality. OZ died just as easily as anyone else. Which was why Nichol preferred using a doll, the empty human skin serving as a proxy guided by the OZ soldier from a remote location. Hearing approaching footsteps, Nichol scrambled up to run down the corridor with supernatural speed and quiet.

He pressed himself into a shadow, keeping his breath shallow and listening for the sounds. Most of OZ didn't know what Lady Une was planning. From the outside it looked like a strategic war against the more resourceful humans. A war for nothing more than the sheer fun of it. To the average soldier in Une's army, Nichol's questions and his doubts probably sounded like panicked skepticism. But Nichol knew something they didn't know, he'd found the book of lore open in her rooms when one of her maids had let Nichol slip inside, the simple woman did not suspect his amorous intentions were a plan to learn more about their Colonel's agenda.

An ambitious agenda. A means by which to escape OZ. Or a path by which to be the only member of OZ to achieve immortality. And it only required the draining of five specific human bloodline. Each one so well protected it might as well be buried underground and completely undetectable by OZ abilities. To drink only one, and not the others, would turn an OZ soldier back into a mere human.

A path he might be interested in acquiring for himself. But when to make his move?

A path he might be interested in acquiring for himself. But which one?

He had time, but not forever. This was the fortress of Five. Lady Une would arrive soon and take whomever she wanted.

...

"Did you read this? Did you see this? Do you know what they're saying?" Elevating his volume with each pass, Duo paced the expensive carpet.

Quatre stayed at his desk, elbows against the elegant stained wood--an antique. "Four wants to surrender to OZ."

"Figure it out, man," Duo stopped mid-way. Lifting his arms to the ceiling, then set them onto the desk opposite from Quatre. A tropical breeze blew in through the open doors causing the fabric, that barely blocked the bright afternoon sun, to snap and flutter. "They've essentially signed over to OZ. How? How can OZ be trusted? They drink our blood, and they don't sip. No one in OZ has truly offered peace, never in the past and not now."

"Lady Une spins a convincing story," Quatre said, his tone flat.

"Lady Une," Duo spun around his braid flipping outward as he resumed pacing. "Let's pull up her file. I've heard some of the horrible things she's done in the past."

"Duo." Quatre's tone warning, and, if Duo was honest, encouraging. He'd come to rely on Quatre, the other man's compassion and frank kindness. Duo knew how to be kind, but the sort that came with a price tag, a policy of only scratching a back if you got something in return. Quatre, best that Duo could tell, never called in a favor. Quatre made Duo want to be a better person. Simply by existing.

"So what do we do?" Duo laced his fingers behind his head, trying to turn his frantic pacing into a leisurely stride. He heard Quatre laugh.

"Sacrifice ourselves."

That caused Duo to pause. "What? Suicide?"

"Not exactly." Quatre leaned back in his chair. His hand lifted a cup of tea, not at all trembling or indicating any self-doubt. "We'll fight. Do exactly what we've been asked to do, destined to do, since birth. Protect the bloodlines."

"Against the numbers of OZ?" Duo whistled. "I like a good fight as much as the next guy, but..."

"We won't be alone," Quatre interrupted. "Good people only need to see our fighting OZ to join us. Know that they need to resist as well. To remind them that OZ is founded on bloodshed."

"Blood eating," Duo sneered, wrinkling his nose.

"I have a good feeling," Quatre replied, this time standing. He crossed to the far wall where a floor to ceiling display case held a vast and specific arsenal of weapons.

"We'll have to take Dorothy with us," Duo reminded. "But if we can get to..." he paused, suddenly distrustful of everything. "If we get to where I've stowed away Hilde, then we can regain our strength."

"Yes, Dorothy cannot stay here, but I doubt that we'll have much trouble finding help once we show our hand in the matter." Quatre smiled.

"I can't say 'no' to that face," Duo sighed. He pointed at Quatre's sword. "But remember when you're wielding that weapon no one's looking at your face."

...

"Keep her quiet, and don't touch her, on pain of death." Lady Une ordered. She had only pure OZ soldiers with her for this mission. Nichol hardly expected she'd use dolls in Five's fortress, but he hadn't been sure. While he'd accessed the truth in his fleeting encounter with Une's confidential files, he didn't know the ins and outs of her daily patterns.

The prisoner was a woman. The bloodlines passed through the daughters, Nichol remembered that. Her face was red, not blushing but as if slapped. He hadn't seen her capture, only falling in behind the OZ squad. He moved out of step, not being part of this group they hadn't kept a place for him in formation.

He watched her closely, curious about her. Her hair was honey brown in two braids left loosed. Her eyes met his and if they'd been lasers would have burned his skin from their intensity. He noticed her elbow shift. Her arms were untied.

"Colonel, she's loose!" Nichol warned, shouting. He sprang forward, needing only two steps to push Une to the side. Looking over his shoulder, Nichol saw the woman had lifted a small weapon and had cut down two of the squad in the same fraction of a second Nichol had taken to get his commander out of harm's way. The others crowded around her, so that Nichol couldn't tell how well she held up in the fight.

"Get off me, Nichol," Une growled. Not a safe sound at all, and Nichol cracked his head against the wall from the force of her shove. "OZ does not duck and cover from a battle." She spit, red hitting the floor, and loomed toward the movement of struggling bodies.

Nichol put fingers to his lips, finding himself cut, again. This time not from the fortress defenses, but from Une. His thoughts darkened, as if covered over by a heavy blanket. She disciplined him without thought, not considering how much more red she would have spilled on the ground if he'd let the prisoner knife Une. He should have let her.

After all, no one in OZ was immortal. It was about time that the world knew.

He made his choice.

He would give it all up. He was done with following her orders.

...

"She's safe," Duo said, returning to where Quatre had brought both of their motorcycles.

Quatre settled the helmet over his head and switched on the visor to give him a digital visual on the surrounding woods and the movement of the lurking OZ soldiers kept in the shadows of the trees. His sword was flat against his back, still sheathed until he absolutely needed it. Otherwise, he'd need both hands for the speed he intended to coax from the bike. Rashid had done a fabulous job refitting it after the last attack.

"Did you listen to the reports coming in?" Duo's voice was so soft Quatre could have pretended he didn't hear. Perhaps Duo wanted Quatre to pretend.

"Yes, I heard them," he responded.

"They're denouncing the bloodline guardians. They've actually, publicly acknowledge humanity's last weapon against OZ," Duo grumbled. "How does an offer of peace from OZ justify revealing humanity's greatest secret?"

"Rumors have already escaped, Duo." Quatre turned to see Duo adjusting his own helmet, legs already astride the black and gold bike. "Of course, we'd have been experimenting for a cure. Some sort of means by which to heal our friends and our families lost to OZ. It's not as if they all had a choice to join OZ. Some were taken against their will."

Duo's gloved fingers flexed against the handlebars. "I know, I know. It's just them or us most of the time. As if they don't want a cure. And even if they wanted peace and to stay as they are... it's not possible. Not..."

"Solo tried," Quatre reminded. "But without the cure and without blood, OZ, even ex-OZ eventually starve. We've tried donors, old blood, animals... this is what we have left."

"I know," Duo's lips quirked into a smile. "I just miss him, you know. He was my friend. I loved him."

"And he loved you. Which is why he was able to stay with you until the end, without putting you in any danger." Quatre knew Duo needed to hear the story from someone outside his own head. Duo reliving the tragedy of losing his mentor over and over. "Besides, Duo, he left you his secret. He gave you Hilde to take care of."

"Right," Duo nodded. "So, let's stir up some trouble and see if anyone helps us."

...

"Lady." Nichol stood at attention giving Une his report. "Word is coming in that One and Three are still in pleasant peace talks. Two is missing. Four is in transit. Squads are encountering resistance from Two and Four's guardians."

"Well, we knew that Five was absent. That was lucky. But these guardians are only human too. Devious and clever humans, but as long as we can match them in brains we outclass them in brawn." She took off her glasses. Her voice softened, "Please make sure that Miss Sally is comfortable. See to her yourself. And send in one of my girls." Her fingers started to untangle her braid. Her expression in the mirror turning softer and the stern lines slipped away.

Nichol saluted and left. How did no one else notice when she turned? How she quit making orders, threatening, and put down her hair. Called in one of her girls.

"All she wants are fingers in her hair and kisses on her mouth when she's like that. It's sweet," Nichol's maid had told him.

She lost all common sense is what Nichol saw. And her last words were a command to interact with Five. He swelled with good luck.

After stopping to send a girl to distract Une, he continued to the holding cells. The lower levels were unpleasant to Nichol as they smelled of fear and anxiety. Even the soldiers guarding the cells seemed ill at ease, sweat on their brows and dripping from under their clothing. The temperature was unbearably hot. This is where she'd put Sally? He didn't doubt it. The girl had been very uncooperative.

How in the world was Nichol going to get her to believe him? Each step made Nichol anxious, he hoped the emotion smelled on him no different than the other OZ in proximity.

"I've orders to take her to better quarters now," Nichol stated, choosing a simple truth. Even a fool could smell a lie. Which made Une's inconsistency all the more terrifying as she always smelled of truth.

"Would you like help?"

Nichol glanced at the soldier's face, riffling through his memories for a name. "No, thank you, Lon. I'm capable enough of handling one girl."

"That's what we hear," Lon stepped aside, submissively. Rank had it's privileges, but Nichol had a favorable reputation as a fair officer even if his talents were significantly greater earning him some ruthless advantages.

Nichol stepped into the cell. Sally was on her knees against the far wall, unable to sit comfortably as her hands were chained too high along the wall. Enough time had gone by that she was unable to stand any longer. He tried to find her scent before flinching back. That was the whole point of her bloodline. She was opposite. She was a cure.

Which was the entire reason why Une wanted her untouched. No need in letting the underlings know they had a way out.

"Hey handsome," she said, as casually as she could Sally tilted her head. Watching him with eyes more gentle but just as intense as he remembered.

"I'm pretty sure I'm not your type." He could hold her down and snap her neck, but, as he unchained her wrists, his fingers shook.

Her eyes missed none of it. "Do you know what I am?" she asked.

Foolishly, Nichol paused.

"You do," her voice was sly with promise, but nonthreatening. Nichol wondered why he expected her to behave like Une. Both were strong women, but they were not the same woman. "You look the same. I remember you from before. Although, I must say, your Colonel Une shows a very different face when she speaks to the humans."

"Do you know what she is?" He asked, exuding snideness, but hoping.

"I see it," Sally rubbed her wrists and sank to the floor, resting her legs. "I know she's broken."

"She's broken now," Nichol said quietly, even though he'd heard Lon leave and no one else was nearby. "We must move quickly. Can you get up? I can carry you."

"What do you intend to do with me?" Sally asked.

"I don't want to take power. I'm not that sort of soldier," Nichol attempted to explain.

"But to leave OZ puts you no place," Sally reasoned, accepting his arm and sighed in relief when her legs held her weight ably enough. "Even with open-minded humans, you'll wither and die."

"Not with you I won't," he murmured.

"Do you believe that?"

"I want to."

...

"Damn it, Quatre, get out of there!" Duo knew that his volume was too loud for the communication system they were using, but even if all that got through was screeching static Quatre would get the idea.

Duo's bike flipped from underneath him. His limbs burned hot as he was thrown forward, the overheated metal of the bike falling across his legs. "Damn it, damn, damn." Duo tried to wiggle his legs free, the heat everywhere that he couldn't decide which pain hurt the worst.

"Stop struggling," another voice came through the system. Then a figure appeared in the corner of Duo's vision. The weight lifted from his legs. "Now!" the voice commanded. "Can you move? I said now."

"Is that really you?" Duo bit his lip, but the lesser pain did little to cure the raging agony of his lower limbs.

"Don't start whining to me," Wufei scolded. "I have a feeling this was his idea, but you're here so I decided to help."

"You finally agree we're doing the right thing." Duo observed breathlessly. He leaned his head back against the ground, chest heaving.

"I don't like the plan to join forces, but what you're doing is right. And if joining together keeps OZ from killing us, then I'm going to be part of this." Wufei's face was mostly obscured by his helmet, but Duo indulged in happy imaginings as he seemed to be floating out of his body. Wufei was close to him, with those dark eyes and the best arms he'd ever seen.

"You do realize you're saying all that aloud, right?" Wufei seemed more bemused than angry. That was good, Duo decided.

"Well, I never met a compliment that shouldn't be shared," Duo's vision was replaced by a darkness. "I can't see anything."

"Hold on. I've got you."

"Wufei?" Duo could just make out Quatre's voice on the channel. "Escape with Duo. Get him out of here. I'll hold OZ off."

"Are you sure?" Wufei replied.

"Definitely, make sure Dorothy is taken care of and tell her I'm sorry."

"No," Duo said, feebly. "Won't leave Quatre..."

"You don't have a choice, idiot," Wufei said. But the radio channel had been cut. Instead, Duo heard the other man's voice close to his ear. Duo's helmet was off and his head felt lighter.

"God, I've missed you," Duo murmured.

"I would say the same if it were true. But, I've learned something about giving second chances..." Wufei might have kept talking, but Duo wasn't conscious to hear the rest.

...

For once in his life, either as a human or as OZ, Nichol was thankful for a strong-willed woman. Sally definitely experienced pain. She concealed it well, but it was everywhere for him to sense. He could almost taste it and was insanely grateful that her skin wasn't broken, that there wasn't any blood.

Except her blood was exactly what he wanted. And she'd been designed for him. Nichol rubbed his face, resistance manifesting as a thin layer of sweat around his lips.

"I'll do what you want, if you can give information on OZ to us," Sally bargained. She had little room to bargain. She had to know that he could swallow every drop of blood from her body in a short amount of time, just long enough for her to regret escaping with him.

Except he didn't know how the cure worked. Would too much kill him? Was too little not enough? The reports hadn't said that much, because Une didn't know. The spies didn't know. She only needed the five bloodlines and time to experiment.

The records at Fortress Five had been destroyed. Which Une considered a shame, but lesser OZ were expendable. She had scientists. She only needed samples of the bloodlines, and now Nichol had taken one from her.

He was rather proud of that. Even if he died, knowing he caused her a setback was revenge enough.

Except, part of him wanted to survive. To have a second chance at being human again.

"You're being quiet," Sally observed. They had been silent while leaving the facility, Nichol knowing what passageways to take to avoid the OZ officers. Une, the strongest of all of them at Barge, was effectively switched off and escaping was all too easy. He took a car. Found a human road and put miles between them.

"Tell me where to go," Nichol sighed. He blinked back his fury and told himself again this was what he wanted. He could calculate too many scenarios in which this situation might go very wrong and very little that could go well for him. "Tell me what to do."

"It may be difficult," Sally leaned her head against the window. "But I'll tell you where to go."

...

Duo rubbed his eyes then stretched his arms, yawning. He ached, but a strange coolness blew over his legs. He sat up and stared at his waist. His legs. Blinked some more.

"No way, no. No, no, no way." Duo turned sideways on the couch, his naked legs sliding along the fabric of the seat. The skirt pulling up tight around his thighs. "Wufei!" he shouted.

"Yeah?" Wufei's voice was close, and Duo turned to see the Asian man sitting at a laptop, the glow making his exotic features look rather green.

"I'm in a dress," Duo grumbled. His head pounded and he put it into his hands.

"Easiest way to get public transportation here without cutting off your braid." Wufei didn't gloat or laugh, which Duo found highly suspicious. He glared until Wufei met his gaze. At that moment, Wufei's lips broke into a grin. "I told them you were my wife."

"Man," Duo let his face drop into his hands. Then he thought of Quatre and stood up like a shot, the dress falling into place around his knees. "What happened to Quatre? This is no time to joke around. We have to go back to him."

"He's fine," Wufei cut in sharply, then added more kindly, "Heero and Trowa showed up and provided cover. He blew up his own bike, but managed to find transportation. No one's going to have to tell Dorothy that her little prince died."

"Thank God," Duo sat down again. His legs gave out then, and he hissed in pain.

"Easy, I healed those burns, but human bodies aren't meant to heal that quickly," Wufei stood up and walked closer, slowly. Duo knew Wufei's caution. The American had a habit of erupting into panicked terrors at the most unexpected triggers.

"I'm fine," Duo sighed. "Check me out."

"I was going to get around to that, too," Wufei looked away, ghosting his fingers along Duo's calves.

"I'm sorry," Duo leaned his head back against the couch and stared at the shadows on the ceiling. "When you showed up, it was like... I couldn't remember why I told you to go away."

"If I remember, and I do, the last words you shouted at me were, 'Come back when you can handle a man' and 'I don't talk about him all the time'." Wufei had let his hair loose and Duo put his fingers into it, curling around the nearest ear.

"Sounds like me. Man, I'm dumb," Duo grimaced as Wufei tested the skin at his ankles.

"I'm sorry," Wufei reciprocated.

"Nothing to be," Duo chuckled. "Just, what were you thinking leaving me barefoot. These are man toes. Man toes, and you thought I'd pass for your wife?"

"If anyone noticed, you're already a bit of a drag queen needing encouragement," Wufei crossed the room in a heartbeat. "I'll be back with more salve."

The second door opened then and Wufei stepped back in surprise. His voice cracked, "Sally?"

...

"It's me. I'm unhurt, I..." Sally started speaking to the person in the room.

Nichol stayed back. He stood straight as an arrow, unwilling at this defining moment in his life to appear anything less than certain. He had a conviction not to take Sally's blood without her advice, and she wouldn't agree to anything less than his absolute cooperation with human code. No blood. No one's blood.

"You don't have to explain," a man's voice, then Nichol saw Sally's form embraced by a muscular Chinese man with slick dark hair tied in a tail.

"Hang on, who's that?" A second man, further in the room. Nichol had scented someone injured, this male.

"Wait," Sally's voice allowed no question. "He defected. He helped me escape and if anyone here could claim to know the mind of an ex-OZ, that would be you Duo."

"Sal," the person named Duo, whined. "His name will do."

"I'm Nichol," he chose to speak for himself. The Chinese man stayed near Sally with a protective inclination. He must be her guardian, which meant he'd experienced absolute failure when Nichol had aided in her capture. But for a human, he seemed to possess a calmness that bordered on serene. The same was mirrored in Sally.

"I'm Duo. I'm willing to trust you until you do something stupid. Then all bets are off." The man on the couch was definitely male, but he wore a pale pink skirt and a darker jacket. His barefeet set on the floor, but his legs were obviously recovering from burns. Nichol tried to hide the rapid movement of muscles on his face as he took in every detail. These two men were intimate with each other. Not recently, but consistently.

That was too much information as far as Nichol was concerned. He'd be willing to lose that instinct to become human again. Nichol kept his arms behind his back and tried to appear stalwart and docile, a useful skill when Une went into a rage.

"Relax," Wufei shrugged. "I can guess why you're here, and why Sally let you come. Don't need those OZ senses to see something so obvious."

"I'm willing to share information about the OZ military," Nichol started.

"You mean the OZ peace-corp organization," Wufei interrupted with a wry grin.

"Sally said she knows about Une," Nichol tried again.

"Yeah, human doesn't mean we're stupid," Duo sank into the couch. "C'mon, Wufei, my legs feel like they're on fire. You promised me a salve."

"You're injured?" Sally crouched at Duo's legs, examining them. "He used OZ fluid on you."

"Didn't hurt me before, not likely to hurt me now." Duo smirked.

"I don't know if I'd be so proud of that," Wufei interjected. Nichol had heard of humans using the ashes of OZ carcasses in their own experiments, but for healing? That was something new.

The way they spoke freely around him unnerved Nichol. Hope would keep him from injuring them. But he was at their mercy, vulnerable in a way he had never let himself experience before. He must have drifted into a brooding expression as his dark thoughts were interrupted by a hearty string of laughs from Duo.

"Man, oh, man," he held his belly. "Nikky, no arguments cause that's what I'm going to call you, we're not going to grind you up into ointments. If Wufei says 'relax' he means it. Besides, we've been looking for a volunteer."

"Waiting," Wufei corrected as Duo stuck out his tongue. He glanced at Sally, "Although the circumstances were unpleasant..."

"You're exactly who we've been looking for." Sally explained. "Not you exactly, but we've held out hope for a volunteer ever since we were certain of the biology."

"Wait until the rest of the guys get here. It'll be a party and you're gonna be our miracle king, Nikky." Duo chuckled. "Just think about that."

"I didn't want this," Nichol grumbled, self-conscious and afraid to let himself feel happy.

"What do you want?" Duo asked, curiously.

"Just to be human."


End file.
